Early Life
An intensely private person, relatively little biographical information is available on Vizzio. He declines to discuss such standard matters as his birth date, his real first name (Paul is a nickname) or the names of his parents. The following details are known: Sicilian immigrants, Vizzio’s parents arrived in the U.S. prior to World War ll, and settled in New York City. His mother worked as a radio operator in the U.S. Army during the war. His father worked as a bartender and truck driver. Both parents are deceased. Vizzio has two older siblings, a brother, Peter, and a sister, Catherine.
Vizzio’s story is emblematic of many famous American fighters. The family grew up in a six-story “railroad” tenement on 13th Street between Avenues B & C, one of the toughest neighborhoods in New York City’s Lower East Side. It was an environment filled with economic and ethnic strife, where quick hands and quick wits had more survival value than a formal education.
Enormously energetic, Vizzio had difficulty sitting through studies. He ended his schooling early, and although he participated in local team sports like baseball, basketball and swimming, he also got into the kind of minor troubles to which ghetto youths are prone. It was while serving a sentence cleaning municipal golf courses that Vizzio developed a love for golf, that has stayed with him throughout his life. He is a single-digit handicap golfer.
Read more about this topic: Paul Vizzio
Famous quotes containing the words early life, early and/or life:
“... business training in early life should not be regarded solely as insurance against destitution in the case of an emergency. For from business experience women can gain, too, knowledge of the world and of human beings, which should be of immeasurable value to their marriage careers. Self-discipline, co-operation, adaptability, efficiency, economic management,—if she learns these in her business life she is liable for many less heartbreaks and disappointments in her married life.”
—Hortense Odlum (1892–?)
“We do not preach great things but we live them.”
—Marcus Minucius Felix (late 2nd or early 3rd ce, Roman Christian apologist. Octavius, 38. 6, trans. by G.H. Rendell.
“What would life be without art? Science prolongs life. To consist of what—eating, drinking, and sleeping? What is the good of living longer if it is only a matter of satisfying the requirements that sustain life? All this is nothing without the charm of art.”
—Sarah Bernhardt (1845–1923)